The Sound of Settling
by transientxsmile
Summary: Sometimes you have to compromise what you really want for reality.


Title: The Sound of Settling

Author: Alex Kane

Spoilers: Fifth season of Smallville, preferably after the first episode but since it's the 5th of October (Wednesday), I may have to change that…or not.

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Sometimes you have to compromise what you really want for reality.

Pairing: Chloe/Lex

Feedback: Yes, please. Even if you're flaming me, I'd love input.

Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville, only this plot. I don't own Death Cab for Cutie either, which from where I stole this title.

Lex had come all the way to Alaska to bring her home. If it wasn't Lex and it was different circumstances, maybe she would feel flattered. As things were, Chloe had tried to convince him that she was fine were she was. She thought-correction, she **knew** that Clark would be coming back for her, and if she wasn't there when he did…he would probably think the worst. Of course, she couldn't say that to a certain Luther, especially since he was suspicious about her saying the farmboy's name upon waking already. Therefore, she had to be content with the lame "I don't want to be a bother, I'll be fine, yadda yadda blather blather" excuse.

Which, being Lex, didn't convince him and he felt suddenly that it was his God-given duty to see her back to Smallville. Chloe really hated it when he got all authoritative about things, like he was the only one that could set things right with the world or something. She tried to argue further with him about it, but since she was just recovering from her lovely almost-freezing-to-death experience, she was too wiped out to go too far with it.

The next thing she knew, she was waking up in a posh Metropolis hospital room with the dreaded, unnecessary IV tube once again hooked up to her arm. Argh. Why did she even need that thing anymore? Chloe looked up from inspecting it and deciding that ripping it out by force would require too much effort and loss of blood and saw Lex sitting in a leather chair opposite the adjustable bed. Big surprise, it looked like he was studying the business section of the Daily Planet. She started to open her mouth to yell at him for taking her here against her will when she stopped.

For the first time in at least a year, Lex looked very human to her. Lately…he had seemed like this undeniable force that didn't even have a soul. Despite what Clark thought about him, Chloe knew that Lex would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Anyways, right then his eyes flicked up from the paper to look at her, probably sensing her staring at him. Suddenly he was back to the new and not-so-improved man that she had gotten so used to seeing lately.

"How are you feeling?" he asked softly, his voice so like that day that she had begged him for help against his father that she almost looked away. Chloe forced herself to hold the gaze of those iceberg blue eyes. That memory seemed to her that it had happened decades ago with all that they had gone through since then…and besides, she hadn't asked him to bring her here. The two situations were as different as…well…as…

They were as different as Clark and Lois.

After a moment, she replied, " I feel fine. I'd be even better if you could tell me why this isn't Smallville. Or, better yet, why you had to drag me all the way back to Kansas".

He chuckled, folding up the Daily Planet and sliding under his chair. Chloe watched it blend into the gray and white of the floor tiles and almost disappear to her. " I see you've been in Metropolis ER enough to recognize it on sight. It makes me wonder about what sort of activities you're gotten into recently, Ms. Sullivan."

When was the last time that he had called her that? Was he trying to pull a nostalgia trip on her? It wasn't going to work. She was once a reporter (for a high school newspaper, but it still counted), and no stranger to the under handed ways and methods of getting information that they didn't teach you in journalism 101.

"Don't change the subject," Chloe warned, sitting up and glaring at him. " I have to admit that this is better than waking up in some Luthercorp lab with electrodes and wires attached to my skull reading my brain waves, but this isn't where you said you were taking me, Lex."

Lex actually had the nerve to look hurt from that. He raised an eyebrow at her and said, sounding as indignant as is possible if you're a twenty-something multi-millionaire, "You were **expecting** me to have you in a cell in Luthercorp somewhere? Like you were some sort of convict or something?"

She considered lying, or pretending to make a joke out of what she had said. That wouldn't be fair to either of them. "Yeah, pretty much. Are you surprised that I would think that?" Chloe asked bluntly.

He studied the wires and cable TV attached to the wall directly to the right of her bed. It seemed that he decided to be straight with her too as he shook his head slowly. "No, not really. It still pains me that you would think that though…especially with Clark around."

If she hadn't been hooked up to the IV tube in a way that would have shamed the most complicated of VCRs, the blonde would have probably gotten up promptly at his words and stormed out. As it was, she didn't know what to say. Pointing out that Lex was being childish seemed too obvious.

Lex rolled his eyes when he saw the barely veiled anger reflecting in her face, in the way that her muscles tensed suddenly at the mention of everyone's favorite farmboy. He added, "Not that he's most likely justified in telling you that I'm not to trusted. After all, there always needs to be a villain to every hero-"

"You don't know what you're talking about, Lex," Chloe cut in, overriding his words without even thinking about it. The word 'hero' cut too close to the truth for her liking. It might have also had something to do with the fact that Clark wasn't there to defend himself so **someone** needed to. "He's always saying how you deserve another chance. If anything, he's your defender, and all you ever do is badmouth him behind his back. I can see why he thinks you're such a great friend."

Her last sentence was filled with cutting sarcasm, sharp enough to make him smirk a little. Why did he always smile whenever she was angry? Either that or jump in to control everything, which brought them back to her original question.

"I'm sorry." Lex replied, sounding about seventy percent like he meant what he was saying. "I guess you're right and I don't know what I'm talking about, okay? Can we just forget about it and start over?"

Start over, she repeated to herself wistfully. Yeah, right, if only we had a time machine that could take me back to before I ever met you, before I ever met Clark, before my dad even make the mistake of moving to Smallville…but then again, Luthercorp probably had one of those stashed in a basement somewhere.

Chloe forced herself to get back on subject. "Fine, let's start over. On one condition though. "

Lex lost his smirk, obviously expecting the worst since it was, after all, Chloe Sullivan he was talking to. "Well, you know that you can't expect me to agree to the condition until I know what it is," he said hesitantly, fidgeting in his expensive hospital issue chair slightly.

She leaned forward, watching him. How many times was he going to avoid her questions? She supposed she'd find out soon. Chloe announced, "Why did you take me here?"

She saw a noticeable relaxing throughout his body language as he regained the sexy smirk (no, bad Chloe, she scolded herself, don't think of Lex in any way more than PG. Then again, she was female. She couldn't help it). He had expected something worse than that, she could tell. It made her wonder about what he had thought she would ask him to do.

"I thought that was obvious," he remarked, standing up and sitting on the edge of her patient mattress. Getting progressively uncomfortable, Chloe fell back out of her leaning position to put some space between them. She was still watching those light blue eyes, but they were as unreadable as usual.

She retorted, "If it was that obvious, either I wouldn't keep asking you the same question or I'd drop it once you tried to avoid answering whatever I wanted to know. So, spill your guts Mr. Luthor or I'll be forced to stab you with whatever medical equipment that is in the room and I can get my hands on without having to get up."

The man arched an eyebrow at her again. "Do you always babble like this around Clark?" If he had noticed her backing up stance it didn't show on his handsome face (no, she reminded herself, no more compliments for the enemy). How long had he been the enemy for her? She thought suddenly and defiantly. As long as for the Kents, or almost as long? Did it matter as long as it was past?

"Why do you keep throwing Clark's name around like that, Lex? If I didn't know you better, I'd say you were jealous." Chloe had meant for this to come out she was joking but it came out like she was actually asking him another question, one he'd probably dodge around like any other one.

It didn't matter as he reached out and tucked a few strands of sunlight colored hair behind her ear, their noses mere inches apart for one frozen moment in time. She closed her eyes with a muted gasp as he leaned towards her as her lips parted.

Lex's breath wafted lightly against her ear that her unruly hair had just been moved behind. "What if I said that I was jealous?" he whispered and Chloe turned her head to look at him to see if he was making fun of her. Nope. He was dead serious.

She said lightly, "I'd say that you have absolutely nothing to be jealous about, Lex." She knew how bitterly true this was for her. Even though she knew Clark's secret, it didn't change much between them. For him, there would always be Lana, the only love that he had ever really known.

His fingers traced the length of her jawbone, pulling her closer to him. Their lips met and Lex wrapped his other arm around her waist. Chloe hesitated, then threw herself into the kiss. His body was warm against hers, they wanted each other, so why was she still thinking of Clark? Why did she still want it to be Clark?

Lex deepened the embrace, his lips pressing down on hers hard enough to bruise. Chloe tried to respond but her mind was reeling. How many girls would kill to be where she was right now? Many, she knew, but most of them were probably not going to be puppets for his amusement either. She couldn't shake the feeling that he was only doing this to manipulate her into telling him everything. What was it that she had said to Clark earlier? "Loose lips sink ships"? Well, her lips felt pretty loose right now.

Almost as if he was reading her mind, Lex pulled away and stared into her eyes. "Chloe…is there something wrong or is my attempt to show you how much I care about you not up to par?" He threw in a funny little grin with that last part, and Chloe felt her heart thaw minutely. He was so cute… not in the same alien puppy dog way as a certain someone, but…sexy cute.

"Um," she stammered as she scrambled for an excuse, "I thought that something caught on the IV, and…uh…"

He smirked, and put a finger to her lips to shut her up for a second. She was grateful, kind of, but annoyed too. Most of the time she was a good liar, but something about him was throwing her off. It was weird how Lex was suddenly making her feel the way that Clark did under normal circumstances.

"You know if I'm moving too fast, you can slow me down, right?"he said quietly, "It's not like I haven't waited long enough-"

For the last time that day she interrupted him. "I think that I'm going to leave. You know, I'm really not sick or anything, I should just go back to Smallville."

Chloe watched as his brows furrowed in confusion. "What? What does that have to do with anything?"

She gently removed his arm from around her waist. She explained, "I think that we should forget this ever happened."

With comprehension dawing on his face, he simply stared at her. Wow, she thought guiltily, he looks even more hurt than I thought he would. It wasn't that she was immune to the effect this was having on her…she just hid it better. The kiss with Lex had awakened new feelings in her for him that she never knew that she had. The only idea keeping her from desperately taking it back was the image of what Clark's face would look like if he ever found out about them.

Surprisingly, Lex got up from the bed and started towards the door without another word. Chloe watched him, torn with her inner turmoil against what she wanted to do and what she knew was right.

He stopped in the doorway, his face like stone and expressionless. "I'll get a nurse, tell her you're ready to go," he said shortly.

God, this was so painful. How was she going to be able to face him again? He would never understand the reasons for doing this, especially if he thought the embrace was as mindblowing as she did.

"Lex?" she called out to him , trying to sound casual, "You're okay, right?"

He started to nod, stopped as if a thought had just occurred to him. "You'll always love Clark, won't you?" Comingout of his mouth, it sounded more like a statement than a question.

The blonde wanted to demand what that had to do with anything, but she already knew. It had to do with everything. Every-freaking-thing.

"Yeah," she said grudgingly.

"As long as remains the same, I won't be okay, Chloe," Lex said tonelessly. "Goodbye."

She saw him leave through rapidly blurring eyes. Chloe blinked back her tears and pulled the light blue sheets around herself to burrow into. "Goodbye, Lex," she whispered after the slamming door. "Goodbye."


End file.
